Road pollution ‘kills 5,000 a year in London’

MPs today called for a transport revolution to stop thousands of Londoners dying prematurely each year because of traffic pollution.

A report from the Commons environmental audit committee says pollution could be killing 50,000 people a year nationally with between 3,000 and 5,000 dying nine years early in the capital.

The report warns that if these figures are accurate, traffic pollution would be causing more deaths than passive smoking, road accidents or obesity and costing the economy £20 billion a year.

It calls on the Government and Boris Johnson to radically step up action. "The fact that thousands of people are dying in London in 2010 because of air pollution is a national disgrace," said Tim Yeo, chairman of the committee.

"Pollution from road vehicles causes the most damage to health and we must generate the political will for a dramatic shift in transport policy if air quality is to be improved.

"This means removing the most polluting car and lorries from the road, cleaning up the vehicles that remain and encouraging smarter choices about transport. "If we can do that we will all breathe more easily."

He said new laws were needed as the Clean Air Act was introduced in 1956 following the Great Smog of London in 1952 which killed 12,000. Mr Yeo added: "These days it's not sulphur dioxide from coal fires that's the main problem, but tiny particles produced by cars, trucks and lorries."

The committee said the Government was flouting EU safety rules on levels on pollution.

"In some of the worst affected areas, often in the poorest parts of our cities, this invisible killer could be taking up to nine years off the lives of people most at risk, such as those with asthma, heart disease and respiratory illnesses," said Mr Yeo.

MPs lamented the failure of the Government to do more to clean up the environment in urban areas and warned that the UK is facing the risk of "substantial" fines for its failure to meet EU regulations.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said: "We take improving air quality and meeting EU targets very seriously and have already made significant achievements."